Monday, February 25, 2008

Yesterday I had a chance to try my friend's Dahon VD6 for a test ride. Fortunately, that day was a Car Free Day, a one day monthly event where cars and motorcycles are not allow to enter the street of Sudirman, Thamrin all the way to Monas from 6 AM to 2 PM. This event usually held on the last weekend of the month. The uncrowded street then used by pedestrians, cyclists, and families for recrational activities.

There is no special preparation for me, just use my airsoft helm (Protech helm), my Lowepro backpack and of we go. Together with my wife and her Dahon ht661 (see my previous post) we start late around 9 AM, while many people and events are already begun from 6 and 7 AM. After cruising around the street and meet fellow folding bike owners and took some photos we decided to went home and have lunch at Gado-Gado Bu Aam near our home around 12.

The ride with Dahon VD6 is nice, one shortcome is the saddle that is too hard. It really uncomfortable for a long ride or when the road is not that good. And after riding my bike's wife (16" wheel and hi-tens frame) before, you can really feel the difference that come with the 20" wheel and light alumunium frame of Dahon VD6. Next week I'm planning to go to Tamansari where there are some bike stores that sell Oyama folding bike and test ride it.

I have a habit of doing intense research of something I want before I decided to have it. And internet is a very important source of doing research and it has been for many things I have at this moment. And when I decided to have a folding bike, i go nowhere but digging in the vast resource internet has to offer. Two most important sources for me is Sepedaku (Indonesia bicycles forum) and Id-Foldingbike (Indonesia folding bike mailing list). Both offer important informations for me to choose what folding bike I will have. And right now they are 3 options in front of me, buy one of my friend's Dahon folding bike or buy a new Oyama folding bike. The other option is to buy 2nd hand Hasa F1 folding bike. They all have the same price.

My friend's Dahon actually is a streamlined Chinese Dahon KA062, a version of 2004 Dahon Vitesse D6. The other options is to buy a new Oyama folding bike (a Taiwanese brand) type Skyline Pro that some said it is a copy of Dahon Speed P8 (but with 7 speed). While Hasa F1 is a little bit out of reach because not many people own it and so it is hard find a used one on sale at a reasonable price.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

There are 8 buffalo words repeated in one sentence. And yet it is still grammatically correct sentence. An example is the proverb "Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you". This kind of words particularly the buffalo sentence has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by William J. Rapaport, currently an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.The sentence can be breaking down into 3 types of buffalo:1. The place called Buffalo (city of Buffalo, New York) as an adjective (A).2. The animal American bison commonly called a "buffalo" as a noun (N).3. The word buffalo as a verb meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate (V).So here are there:

iPaper is a flash widget that can be embed in any web page to show various document formats. Its like YouTube, but instead of showing video, this one shows documents such as Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc. It features the ability to add Google Ads directly in the documents. And it also has social features built in to encourage users to share their documents with their friends. In security side, because iPaper documents are embedded in webpages, the documents will naturally inherit the website's existing security system.Scribd, the developer of iPaper offers 3 methods to begin using iPaper. QuickSwitch, that automatically convert documents on your website. Scribd API, for those who know more about programming. And the simplest method is by using the embeding system. This last method works by uploading document to Scribd website, and then you can copy and paste the embed code on Scribd to embed them on your website. If you do not have a website or just want to share the documents, you can choose to view it directly from Scribd website.One thing that really interest me is the idea of sharing documents (like YouTube does with video) is something that really sell. Just go the homepage of Scribd and you will see a lot of people share documents. There a lot of documents from simple thing like cake recipe to some heavy stuff in political or religion. And not just documents, here are the list that can be uploaded:

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

One of my hobby is photography. I was one of the student that start the first photography extracuriculer activities in my high school (SMA 14 East Jakarta) in 1992. Then I went to Department of Journalism in University of Padjadjaran (Bandung) in 1993 and learn journalism photography.

My first camera is SLR Canon AE-1 with Tamron 70-210mm lens from my father. I took mostly journalism and human interest shots and most of it in black and white film. After that camera then I switched on to SLR Minolta Dynax (i forget the type) with kit lens. This camera has been my companion in my college years. By the time I graduated I sold it.When most of my college friends work in media company, I choose a different path and spend of my post college year in IT sectors being an instructor and graphic designer. At this moment I hardly use my photographic skills and just use a Canon pocket digital camera for graphic design work purpose I have that time.After spend several years at Bandung I moved on to Jakarta. Having better financial income then I managed to buy my first DSLR, the Nikon D50 with 18-55mm lens and begin my old hobby again. After about a year I decided to buy another DSLR this time a Nikon D80 with several lenses. What I enjoy from my hobby is the time when I gather and have photo hunting/session with fellow photographer friends in various exotic areas. So it is not just taking pictures but at the same time we travell to beautifull places that some of it I never visited before.At the moment I do not own DSLR at all. I recently sold my D80 for other hobbies and decided to went hiatus on my photography hobby. So now I have a lot of time to review my old photos and decided to begin uploading it to my Flickr account. I will post update here everytime I upload a new photo at my photostream.

Monday, February 11, 2008

First time I know about folding bike is from one of my airsoft buddy when we were actually talking about GPS devices. That was about one year ago and that time I was so consume with my airsoft hobby that I did not give it too much attention altough it is stick in my mind from that time. Recently my wife talk to me about having bike at home and we agree having bicycle will be fun for us. And then one of her friend introduce her to the folding bike. One talk lead to another and yesterday my wife bought her first folding bike.

Test riding the new bike :)

The bike is Chinese Dahon HT661 with 16inch wheel with blue finish. I took on a test ride and I immediatly like it. The practicallity and a lot of fun possibilities that come with it are very interesting. Lets say that I can bring it with me to the office (even ride it to the office), take it inside the car trunk, go to some places (Kebun Raya Bogor, Ancol, etc) and when we arrive we can use it instead using the car. Or imagine this: I ride it to one of the Jakarta-Bandung travel station, fold it and put it inside the travel car's trunk, go to Bandung. After arriving in Bandung, unfold the bike and ride it around the city. It is a lot of fun isn't it? How about going to Yogya by train or to Bali by plane? It only weighing at 10-12 kg so it is easy to carry around after you fold it.

The folded bike in the corner of our room. Looks good with my blue Adidas Superstar :)

But then again this is my wife's bike and it has only 16 inch wheel wich is perfect fit for my wife's size but not for me. My wife said I looke like a circus bear on bicycle when I ride it. So I guess I will buy myself my own folding bike with 20 inch wheel that should fit me well. Look forward for posts about folding bike and bike travel next.In the mean time here are some link to bike community in Indonesia:

Sunday, February 10, 2008

It is so unfortunate condition for Milan right now. Having most of their important players down injured and banned with tight schedule in front of them forcing play twice a week (imagine if they manage to continue in Copa).For tonight game they play with 4-4-2 formation minus Kaka & Pato (injured), Gilardino (banned) and Seedorf (benched) in their starting lineup. Without Kaka and Seedorf as trequartista player, Milan put Ronaldo (looks like not 100% fit tonight) and Inzaghi as strikers. Due to fitness factor it looks like Ronaldo really struggling in playing his duty tonight. In first half he looked like almost invisible.Overall Milan was struggling in the first half without second player to control the game aside of Pirlo. Usually Kaka or Seedorf with their creativity will be able to cover up Pirlo duty in creating chances for the team. But without them it really looks like Pirlo having a bad time to perform well tonight.In the 2nd half Carletto substituted Ronaldo and Nesta for Seedorf and Bonera. I do not know what happened to Nesta so he was substituted in the 2nd half. I did not see anything wrong with him in the 1st half. I just hope Carletto substituted him so he can take a rest for the next game. Anyway the substitution worked well. With Seedorf in the pitch, Milan able to create more chances. Tough I still worried about Bonera because he made couple of mistakes in the first 10 minute in the pitch.The surprise came in in 60mins when Alberto Paloschi, promoted youngster who already played 2 games in Copa Italia (and scored in each game) this season came to the picth replacing Serginho. Paloschi age 18 the same as Pato then made his fist official debut in Serie A. And after Seedorf realesed quick lob pass to the back of Siena defense, without controlling and dribbling the ball, Paloschi just hit the ball with powerfull and precise first time volley kick that went to the right bottom corner of Siena goal.And again Milan was saved by 18 years old player! I just hope that this goal make Milan management realized that we should depend to a more younger potential player rather than "has been" & "over the hill" players.

Man of the match: PaloschiGood appreciation should be given to Kalac too. His consisten performance with Milan recently that award him 1st choice goal keeper ahead of veteran Dida really showed up tonight. He made some of very important stop tonight that couple of them I could describe it as "a 90% goal". But the three firsts from Paloschi: first time appearance in Serie A, first touch of the ball in the game and his first goal in the first game in Serie A, is something that is a man of the match material and Milan should be thankful to him for his goal tonight. We just came closer to the 4th position tonight.

English:Land property for sale in Jalan Nangka about 50 m from Jalan Raya Bogor Km.34 Cimanggis Bogor.The road is wide enough about 15 m that can accomodate large truck such as container truck.The size of the land is about 1900 m2. The location is known as industrial area (near the area are Toa electronic factory and Yanmar diesel engine factory). The distance from Cimanggis tol gate (Jagorawi) is about 7 km. There is a new ring road tol currently under plan and it is about 2 km from the site.Note: The land belong to my family so you deal with first hand owner (myself) of the property.Leave your number or email in Comments so I can contact you for further details.

Recently internet users in Asia and some part of North Africa have difficulties while accessing some web sites or checking their emails. Later it was found out that there was a cable error in undersea internet cable in Mediteranian sea. This happened because a ship's anchor accidently cuts 2 cables (SeaMeWe4 and FLAG Europe-Asia) reducing internet capacity in Asia by 75%.Source: The Guardian

Monday, February 4, 2008

It was a dull 1sty half i watched with my eyes half asleep. The 2nd half started with the same attitude with Fiorentina really explioted our left flank where Maldini is. The break came when Carletto made a change putting in Pato for Seedorf who looked very angry being subsituted at that time. Leaving from the other side of the field and refusing shakehand with Pato.

With this substitution Milan now played with 2 forwards (Gila & Pato). And then Emerson came in to replace Brochi. Emerson play in deep midfield replacing Pirlo original position while Pirlo move to the right midfield. This change worked well and Pato scored and become Milan saver of the game with his goal.

And the disaster struck. Pato injured his ankle while try shooting a ball. It looks worried as Pato really looked in agony and has to be stretched out of the game. I really hope nothing serious although I kind of doubt it. Looks like we are gonna lost another striker perhaps for another couple of months. It really sadden me.

Man of the match:

Kalac played well tonight. One golden opportunity for Fiorentina to level the score has been succesfully denied by him at injury time. I would say that man of the match will be Pato if he able to finish the game. But he did not. So I will say Kalac because his performance to denies Fiorentina chances.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

After reading Digg post about the weirdest book in the world titled Codex Seraphinianus. I wonder what is the most expoensive book sold at Amazon right now. My curiousity arise because the Codex Seraphinianus, said to be rare and expensive, is sold at Amazon for 550 USD.

So I do a little search at Amazon to find out what is the most expensive book they sell at the store right now. And the result is a hard cover book about dog titled: Art of Dog listed at 99,999.99 USD by author Chen, BS. I thought this is ridicoulos and some error because the volume 2 version is available at only 38.95 USD. Too bad there is no image of the book cover available. So do you rather spend more than 90,000 USD for a book about dog or spend it on a real living useful dog instead (and I think it is a lot cheaper too) ? :)